Former Melbourne Storm star Nelson Asofa-Solomona has explained the reasoning behind his chaotic actions following his highly anticipated boxing fight with Cronulla Sharks legend Paul Gallen.
Asofa-Solomona, who had a height, weight and reach advantage over Gallen, made light work of the 2016 premiership star, brutally knocking him out in the closing stages of the first round of the fight.
Following the fight, Asofa-Solomona went to the crowd to celebrate, where he aggressively charged into the crowd and tried to punch someone in attendance.
Luckily for Asofa-Solomona, he wasn't able to contact the attendee, which would have landed him in a lot of hot water.
But the former Storm giant has explained he was racially taunted by the crowd member, which made him lose his head following his victory.
“I looked into the crowd and someone was doing an ape gesture,” he said in his post-fight press conference.
“I stood on the ropes and it looked like someone threw something at me and I just lost it.
“If I could have my time back, because that's not on.
“But what that guy did to me, in terms of that gesture, that's not on either.
“It was a mix of the adrenaline, but I don't tolerate that bullshit, and once I saw it, I just saw red.
“But if I could have my time back, I wouldn't do that.”
It was similar scenes to one of the most iconic UFC fights of all time when Conor McGregor fought undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018, where following his victory, the latter ran out of the octagon, and a fight spilled out with McGregor's camp.
“I've not seen that since Khabib jumped out of the cage, but I think he regrets it,” former World champion Danny Green told News Corp.
“I know the bloke, and if given the chance to re-run what happened, he wouldn't have done it.
“He just reacted, he made a split second decision that he immediately regretted and owned. He did the wrong thing and apologised.”
Following returning home after a brief visit to hospital, Gallen has confirmed he is alright after the knockout, and that he is drawing the curtain on his professional sporting career.
